Hold the phone

Kipp is going to miss those random calls…in the middle of the night…during a movie…in a meeting…or when it’s getting close to deadline…

“Hello, there? Would you be interested in our latest loan offer? It’s a minimum monthly cost of …”

“Can’t right now…on deadline. Can you please…”

“…but this is a one-time offer of 0% interest…”

At which point Kipp starts a dodgeball discourse that can only be done with plucky determined telemarketer—they’ll keep calling over and over again, talking constantly as if reaching a speaking speed limit would turn us into amenable customers while we take the opportunity to vent frustrations at every unfortunate customer service experience we’ve ever had, starting with telemarketing. It’s a game of who will hang up first.

Good thing it’s only the banks, though. Kipp is still expecting unwarranted calls from legal departments pushing us to create a will at minimal cost. Plus there are the calls from the telecoms operators themselves about upgrading services.

Please don’t tell Kipp we’ll be seeing those gone too?

Otherwise, we’ll have to resort to bashing luxury cars (from some stress relief) to prove a point. Much like the Chinese gentleman Kipp talked about earlier this week. He had his Lamborghini bashed in the name of consumer rights. Of course Kipp will have to borrow someone else’s car smash. Uhm, ours is taking its time leaving the mechanic’s.

But Kipp has a feeling this won’t be the last we’ll hear of our telephone sparing partners AKA banking telemarketers.

A clear cut ban on telemarketing would hurt telemarketing companies and financial marketing companies built around these cold calls. There are about 3,500 people involved in marketing financial products, out of which at least 20-30 per cent are in telemarketing, according to a Khaleej Times article.

Not to mention that it closes another avenue for smaller players in the banking and finance sector to reach potential clients without having to shell out major cash for mass advertising.

The Central Bank, Kipp hears, is awaiting feedback from the banks.

In the meantime, we will have to tide ourselves over with leaflets littering our corridors and welcome mats, spam emails and brochures, oh and of course on virtual stalking on social networking sites…until we hear the phone ringing from an unknown number again.